Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
“Another master…but not you?” I eye my friend.
“I’m going to be taking a class of repeaters,” he says. “And I’m going to be watching them closely to see what I can find out. We’re trying to keep this as quiet as possible, so I’d prefer you don’t know who. And we’d like to put you in a nest with another group. Befriend them. Take them out for drinks. Encourage them to confide in you. And tell us what you find out.”
Ugh. I can’t believe what I’m hearing, but when I eye Hawk, his expression is just as serious as Rooster’s. “How am I supposed to make coin while all this is going on? I can’t just not make money for a year while I play with the fledglings.”
“You’ll be compensated.”
“I’d better be.” I don’t work for free. That’s just stupid. “How much?”
“You’ll be paid enough. It’s either that or you leave the guild entirely,” Rooster says, and there’s a thread of steel in his voice. “Lord Nostrum has released his team. You have no employer. You have been stripped of your rank. You can take our offer, or you can leave Vastwarren and take your chances with other employment.”
What other employment does he think I’m going to get? For Taurians, it’s farming, farming, and more farming. And if we’re not cut out to be farmers, we can be…what? Sailors? Work in a mine? So I can scramble for whatever pittance I can eke out for the rest of my life? Or work in the temple back home, spending most of every day in prayer and giving up all my worldly possessions?
To the muck with all that.
Teeth gritted, I glare at Hawk for getting me into this mess. “Just for the record, I hate this idea.”
Rooster sniffs, every bit the haughty guild leader. “Just for the record, I don’t care.”
“Just for the record,” Hawk adds, his tone placating, “you’re the perfect one for this sort of task. You’re good at ingratiating yourself, and the other guild masters will be fighting to get you on their fledgling team. Help us find this murderer—or murderers—and the guild will be extremely grateful. More Taurian guild masters are going to be needed in the future.”
There’s buttering someone up, and then there’s buttering someone up. “We’re going very quickly from ‘about to be kicked out of the guild’ to ‘guild master,’ aren’t we?”
Hawk tugs at the ring on his nose in agitation. “This problem goes pretty deep, Raptor. The two repeaters who were killed were working in different parts of the guild. They had no connection, except that they were found murdered in the same way. It could be anyone who’s next, and even if we ignore the threat to people’s safety, the thieves are costing the guild thousands upon thousands of gold crowns. Somehow, they’re getting into locked rooms and finding objects that have been discreetly hidden away by the guild. We must find out how they’re discovering these items and how they’re extracting them. Who their source is. It’s a knot with many tangled threads. We need the best to help us.”
It sounds like a clusterfuck to me. I glance over at Rooster, whose sour, disapproving look has never changed as he gazes upon me over his tiny spectacles. “You need the best, eh?”
“Hawk reassures me you will be the help we need,” Rooster says stuffily.
“I’ll agree to all of this on one condition.” At Hawk’s raised brows, I point at Rooster. “I want him to tell me that I’m the best.”
There’s nothing more satisfying than Rooster’s outraged sputtering.
Five
Gwenna
Swansday, One Day Before Recruitment Day
Dere Ma,
Tomorrow is the big day. Please say a prayer to the gods that I was accepted as a flegling. The men here that are artificers are all full of themselves, and it’s hard for a woman. Evin Aspeth, who had a lot of knowledge about artifacts, isn’t taken seriously. I hope I can pass this year. I don’t think I can do another year as a repeeter. We don’t work for money. We work for room and bord and to pay off our debts for flunking. If we’re good, maybe we will get picked to be a flegling next time.
I am sending along a few coins I’ve managed to make through odd jobs. Buy yourself new shoes—I no yours are always worn out.
Love, Gwenna
The nerves are starting already, and recruitment day isn’t until tomorrow. I’ve finished my work for the day, and I can either sit in the nestmaid quarters on my bunk with the other women who work for the guild and have them ask me why I want to be an artificer, or I can get out for the night. Lark and Mereden are heading to the King’s Onion, our favorite nearby tavern, and suggested we get together for drinks before the big day.